Eco-disaster tourism. Not exactly a mainstream concept, but this is exactly what the author has in mind as he sets out to visit some of the most polluted and environmentally damaged places in the world. From the radioactive fallout surrounding the ruined nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, to the incredible floating garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, to the thick smog of China, this book provides a detailed look at what some of the worst effects of human technology and carelessness have done to the environment. This provides an eye-opening glimpse into the incredible consequences of our modern lifestyle on the planet.

But it is also an exploration of what we mean when we talk about nature and the environment and confronts some essential contradictions in how we often think about these concepts. The author questions the wisdom of trying to preserve nature in the total absence of human activity, and whether this is even possible. He confronts the possibility that we have already irreversibly altered the ecosystem, and whether finding new ways to think about our relationship to the environment might be more helpful in addressing some of the conditions he encounters in his travels.

These are not locations that many other people (myself included) would find attractive as tourist destinations. But it is helpful that the author was interested in visiting them. This book allows us to consider the implications of what these locations say about how we live and what impact our lives have on our surroundings. While it doesn’t really provide any specific suggestions for how to solve these problems, it does help provide a framework for discussing possible solutions.

This will be available at today's BCinDC gathering in the food court, but if it isn't claimed by anyone, it will be wild released elsewhere in the mall.

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The author visits places of notorious environmental damage: Chernobyl, the oil sands pits of Canada, the refineries of Texas, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the coal mines of China, the shrinking Amazon rainforest, and the feces-filled rivers of India. There is a surprising (and somewhat refreshing) lack of judgement here. The author does not suggest we eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels or get rid of plastic or stop growing soybeans in South America. I was particularly struck by the commentary on national parks and our tendency to think of pristine nature as not including humans, as if we're somehow not part of nature. I came away with a lot of things to think about, a lot of them uncomfortable, without feeling like the author was trying to make me feel bad. On the contrary, he was just showing me these places I will likely never visit - that almost no one visits as a tourist (except Chernobyl, but their tourism boom happened after the publication of this book) - and increasing my awareness about the diversity of the world. It's easy to (willingly) forget about the dirty places if you only visit the clean ones. Definitely recommended.

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An interesting offbeat read that is both travel book and ecopolitics. I found the choice of polluted locations informative. At the same time as I was reading this, I was ear-reading The World Without Us, which discussed how or if the planet can recover from the ravages of human presence. That book also looked at Chernobyl, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the refineries around Houston. It was an interesting interaction between the two books. I am left sad by how we have destroyed the planet and how little we seem to be willing to do about it. And I have to agree with the author that part of the problem is how we see humanity and human creations as separate from nature.

This book is going to meet-up with me today with the other members of BookCrossing in Washington DC (BCinDC).

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